5-lot mixed subdivision · Papatoetoe
809m² · All consents approved in 5 months · Negligible RFIs & built in 6 months
Subdivisions
Subdivisions, consented in-house and on time.
RC, BC, and build — managed by one team from feasibility to title. Faster council clearance, fewer RFI loops, and cost certainty most Auckland practices can't match.
Who this is for
You've got a site — or you're about to buy one — and you need real answers.
You're with a site — or a site you're about to buy — and you want to know:
- Can it be subdivided?
- How many lots, realistically?
- How long will council take?
- What's the total professional cost?
Or you've started a project with another firm and it's stuck in council back-and-forth, and you want a second opinion or a clean takeover.
How we work differently
Four principles that change the outcome.
No subcontracted planners.
The person who designs your lots is the person who writes the report and responds to council. Every other firm in North Island adds at least one handover here. We don't.
Council relationships built on cleanliness, not friendliness.
We don't try to charm council into approving thin applications. We submit clean, complete documentation that's hard to RFI in the first place.
Fixed fees with no scope-creep tax.
Our quote is the quote. If scope changes mid-project, we quote the variation before doing the work — never after. Most clients see fewer than two variations across a project.
Plan Change 78 & PC120 fluency.
We've been working with the post-October 2025 zoning landscape since the day it changed — including the PC120 replacement now in submission. If your project is in flight or affected, we'll tell you what's still possible and what isn't.
Process & timeline
A typical Nivas subdivision flows like this.
Week 030-min meeting
Feasibility check (free, 30 min)
Quick yield and constraint review. We'll tell you honestly whether the site is worth taking further.
Weeks 1–3Completed in 2–3 weeks
Design and documentation
Concept design, site analysis, council pre-app where useful. You see drafts before we lodge anything.
Week 3Same week
Resource consent lodgement
We submit complete. Most North Island practices lodge incomplete and rely on the council to ask for the rest. We don't.
Weeks 3–20Completed in 3–4 months
Council Reviews & Approves
We respond to any RFIs directly — usually within days, not weeks.
Weeks 18–21Completed in 2–3 weeks
Building consent documentation and lodgement
Detailed drawings, specifications, supporting reports. Lodged complete.
Weeks 21–25Completed in 4 weeks
Building consent approved & ready for construction
We hand over the full set of stamped drawings and specifications for your builder to take from here. We're on speed dial to your builder so if anything comes up we're there (but it rarely does).
Most projects move from brief to RC + BC approved in 5–6 months. Compare that to the Auckland average of 8–12 months.
Recent work
Different sites. Same way of working.
Each of these came with its own constraints — yield, access, neighbours, council expectations. Each one moved faster than the Auckland norm because the design and planning didn't change hands.
4-lot standalone subdivision - Papatoetoe
729m² · All consents approved in 4 months · Challenging traffic due to slope & currently under construction
5-lot standalone subdivision · Manurewa
756m² · Each house with a unique facade · Saved $30K on Vector fees · Less RFIs & built in 4 months
Anxieties we hear
Honest answers to the questions developers actually ask.
"What if my site can't actually be subdivided as much as I'm hoping?"
Then we'll tell you before you spend money on it. The feasibility check exists for exactly this reason. We'd rather lose a small fee than waste your year.
"What if council loops me with RFIs?"
The majority of RFIs are about missing information that should have been in the original application. We submit complete, which means fewer RFIs — and when council does come back, the same person who drew the project answers them.
"What if my project goes over budget?"
The consent-phase fee is fixed. Scope changes are quoted before work starts. We can't control the construction phase, but we can — and do — control the part that's most prone to budget creep.
"What if I get a bad design firm and I'm stuck with them?"
Ask us for references from clients who've worked with us before deciding. We're a small enough team that you'll meet everyone who'll touch your project at the first meeting. No bait-and-switch to junior staff.
What we deliver
End-to-end design and consenting for residential subdivisions.
- Feasibility and yield analysis
- Concept and resource consent drawings
- Resource consent (RC) application and council coordination
- Building consent (BC) documentation
- Building consent application and RFI response
- Construction monitoring and Section 224(c) sign-off coordination
We work on bundled land-use + subdivision consents, vacant-lot subdivisions around existing dwellings, and rear-lot development. We coordinate engineers, surveyors, and arborists where needed — but we never subcontract the planning.
Single home builds
Own a single lot? We design houses too.
The same in-house process applies to single-dwelling new builds. Concept design, building consent, documentation, construction monitoring. If you already own a lot — bare or with something to demolish — and want to build one home, we'll quote a fixed scope and deliver it on the same timeline discipline as our subdivision work.
Plan your buildNext step
Got a site? Let's see what it can do.
A 30-minute feasibility check tells you what your site can realistically deliver, what the timeline looks like, and what it will cost to get there.